I changed one thing in my workout last week.
Instead of regular RDLs two legs I did single-leg RDLs. In my opinion, one of the more underrated exercises out there.
Three sets of six. The weight wasn’t crazy. Lighter than what I could do.
My legs hadn’t been sore in months.
But the next day, I could barely walk.
That workout was probably less effective than my normal one.
How so? I did a different exercise, I was way more sore but it probably wasn’t as effective. Here’s how that can be true.
I’ve done two-leg RDLs for a while. I can go heavy and push hard. Single-leg was new for me again, so I had to go lighter, play it a little safe, get a feel for it. Less weight. I couldn’t push the target muscle as hard.
But I was significantly more sore.
This is the part most people get backwards. Just because it made me more sore doesn’t make it the better option. I was sore because it was new.
The two-leg version? I don’t get sore from those anymore, because I do them often. But that’s exactly why I can push much harder and hit my true capacity the training wheels and the learning curve are off.
I’ve done single-leg RDLs plenty of times over my life. But time away means there’s a minor relearning curve coming back to them.
It’s not like riding a bike, where you can hop on after ten years and know exactly what to do. It’s more like swinging a golf club. If you don’t do it for ten years, you’re very unlikely to be as good as you once were. You need some practice to get back up to par. No pun intended.
Now, soreness can be a decent indicator of something. If you’re sore in the muscles you were training, that tells you those muscles got worked. That’s fine.
But soreness is not the scoreboard. It’s not the primary indicator of how effective a workout is. Most of the time it just means you did something new — not something better.
Here’s another example.
Say you’re someone who usually lifts very light for high reps, and you start lifting heavier in the eight-to-twelve range. Plenty of research backs up that going heavier and challenging yourself there is better for building strength, getting leaner, and building muscle.
But the soreness still isn’t the reason it’s more effective.
Because flip it around. Say you normally do hard sets of eight to twelve, and one day you do a light, high-rep workout sets of thirty. Even if it’s far less muscularly challenging, that novel stimulus of going lighter and much higher rep will make you more sore. And as we said, the research says it’s not as effective as challenging yourself in the eight-to-twelve rep range.
Being sore isn’t a bad thing.
Being sore also isn’t the feeling that means you did something great.
It’s just kind of a thing.
— James